Top 10 Museums Around The World

Do you love going to museums? Everyone knows the best way to experience a country’s culture is by going to a museum, and most of them are free. Come on, what more can you ask for? Here are the top 10 museums around the world with a twist.

10. Science Museum, London - A major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and today is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually (entry to the museum is free, United Kingdom Pound Sterling).

9. Centre Pompidou, Paris - A complex building that houses a vast public library and is the largest museum for modern art in Europe. As of 2006, the Centre Pompidou has had over 180 million visitors since 1977 and more than 5,209,678 visitors in 2013, including 3,746,899 for the museum (admission is 14 Euros, European Central Bank).

8. Musée d'Orsay, Paris - Originally a railway station, the museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings and photography. It houses the largest collection of masterpieces in the world such as Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin and Van Gogh (admission is 11 Euros, European Central Bank).

7. National Museum of South Korea – This museum is the flagship museum of Korean history and art in South Korea and is the cultural organization that represents Korea (Admission is free, Korea Won).

6. Newseum, Washington DC - This museum features 15 theaters and 15 galleries. The Newseum's Berlin Wall Gallery includes the largest display of sections of the Berlin Wall outside of Germany. The Today's Front Pages Gallery presents daily front pages from more than 80 international newspapers (admission is $22.95 plus tax for adults 19+ and free for children 6 and younger).

5. Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, China - The museum covers an area of 68,000 square meters, with planned visiting flow of 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 visitors per year. As of July 2010 the museum will have attracted over 23,000,000 visitors making it one of China's most visited modern museums (admission is 60 China Yuan).

4. Natural History Museum, London - The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology and zoology. As of 2013 the museum will have attracted over 5.4 million visitors (admission is free, United Kingdom Pound Sterling).

3. Vatican Museums, Italy - The museums of the Vatican City are located within the city's boundaries. They display works from the immense collection built up by the Popes throughout the centuries including some of the most renowned classical sculptures and most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world. As of 2013 the museum will have attracted over 5.5 million visitors (admission is 16 Euros, European Central Bank).

2. Swarovski Kristallwelten, Austria - Swarovski Crystal Worlds in Wattens is one of Austria’s most popular attractions and has enchanted millions of visitors since 1995. This beloved attraction has brought moments of wonder to over twelve million visitors from all around the world. Visitors are surprised, touched, and perhaps even transformed by crystal in all its facets (admission is 19 Euros per person).

1. Louvre, Paris - One of the world's largest museums and a historic monument in Paris, France. The Louvre is the world's most visited museum, and received more than 9.7 million visitors in 2012 (admission is free, Euro).

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